babble is rabble.ca's discussion board but it's much more than that: it's an online community for folks who just won't shut up. It's a place to tell each other — and the world — what's up with our work and campaigns.

Tens of thousands of indignados bring Madrid to a complete standstill in a spontaneous and defiant bid to reclaim Puerta del Sol from the police.

It was to be expected. When municipal and national police evicted and destroyed the 15-M information booth at Puerta del Sol this morning, destroying the spiritual heart of the protest movement (including the banners, pictures and pieces of art which had been so painstakingly collected over the past 2,5 months), they knew they were in for a ride.

That’s why they came with 300 of them, in 20 armed vehicles, blocking off the entire square and taking absolutely no chances whatsoever that the indignados would come back in larger numbers to reclaim the square. All day long, they kept the square hermetically sealed off, even closing the Sol metro station — one of the largest and most important in the city.

But what happened tonight — in fact, what is on display right now, as I’m writing this — came unexpected even for myself. Given the unbearable heat of summer, most madrileños generally flee the city to the countryside in the month of august. This is probably why the police only made their decisive move now, instead of a few weeks ago. They expected less resistance than before....

In just two days, the Spanish police has spoken out against the government and in support of the indignados — while at the same time beating them up.

Either the police has lost it, or the government has lost the police. Or both. Whatever way it may be, the predicted summer lull in Spain’s 3-month youth uprising has failed to materialize. So far, the holiday month of august has proven to be sizzling hot in the Spanish capital.

For the past three days, the streets of Madrid have been in the hands of the protesters — while a small army of riot police desperately cling on to Puerta del Sol and Parliament. Instead of subsiding in the wake of Tuesday’s eviction of the info booth at Puerta del Sol, the protests have rapidly and spontaneously intensified (pictures here!)....

Quote: The 15-M movement is a nonviolent movement. It is something that is so essential that it didn’t even require a decision taken in the assembly. It simply goes without saying, it has emerged as a pure self-evident fact. We do not decide upon our DNA, we are born with it.

So strong is this “undecided decision” that no one has contravened it, despite the provocations, the evictions, the beatings. (There are other “undecided decisions” which are known to everyone: that we are a horizontal, inclusive, respectful movement, without representation, not wanting anything to do with acronyms and political parties, etc.).

Nonviolence does not mean non-conflict. We have occupied places, we have demonstrated without permission, we blocked evictions, we have thrown the police out of the neighborhoods… That is, the 15-M nonviolence is not passive, it is not compliant with the law nor has it taken on the conventional form of politics. It is active, rebellious, disobedient and creative....

Four days after the police eviction and a day after the worst police violence since the start of the protests, the indignados of Madrid are back in the square.

There were tears. There were smiles. But above all, there were cries of victory. After a 4-day long standoff with police, who had evicted the square on Tuesday and effectively occupied it ever since, thousands of indignados (16.500 according to #acampadasol) tonight took back the square after yet another long march from Atocha....

eta: Quote: Interestingly, in abandoning the square this afternoon, Spanish police directly went against a government order that obliged them “not to allow protesters to return to the square at any cost.” The largest police union had previously criticized the government for the illegality of this order, requiring policemen to break the law in order to carry out government policy.

Quote: The indignation on Spanish streets has not risen out of ignorance, when newspapers announced last week that the airport of Ciudad Real had joined the growing list of airports in Spain closing because of lack of flights, the ‘indignados’ understood that it had only been constructed during the building boom so that speculators could receive huge sums of public subsidies which will never be returned to the Spanish people. That is why they were not surprised a few days ago when the IMF recommended that the country cut salaries of public servants and raise VAT, or when Spanish Finance Minister Elena Salgado suggested that the nation might need to endure even deeper spending cuts than those approved by Parliament. Nor was there a sense of surprise when the Catalan Government announced yesterday that it would sell-off 37 of its government buildings at a loss of 42,4 million Euros. Nothing shocks the ‘indignados,’ they just hope that one day they will have enough critical mass to stop these incessant attacks from the financial and political elite, on the country’s citizenry....

The march to Brussels: who are we, where are we going, why do we do it

Posted by carolina on 08/14/2011

We travel on foot the more than 1,500 km separating Madrid and Brussels. We will stop in Paris on September 17 to support the different actions of our comrades around the world that day. On October 8 we will arrive at Brussels, where an intensive week of protests and discussion forums will take place and culminate with the big global event planned for October 15.

The idea of the March arose simultaneously in several places in Europe, in accordance with the normal processes of collective intelligence, and was spurred by a shared sense of duty to continue the Movement of Popular Marches. The same day the several meetings that took place in the Retiro Park in Madrid received a visit from a Nobel laureate in economics, and the proposals collected on the first stages of the March of the Indignants were presented to the Congress, we decided to set on our journey....

"Despite being the fourth-largest economy in Europe, Spain is definitely feeling the bite of the credit crisis. In fact some in Spain believe the best strategy in the current climate may be an exit one.."

“In order to understand what happened at Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, it is important to take into account facts that have not been sufficiently considered. From the very first day, the camp has been carefully kept neat and well-ordered. Infrastructure, communication strategies, and victualling committees were created. Within them, protocols to both discuss and decide were openly negotiated. The work was administered through self-organized shifts. Protection from sun and rain were mounted and installed on site. Protesters managed the borrowing of temporary toilets and regulated the use of showers at supporting neighboring apartments. When sanitary inspectors from the municipality visited the camp, they concluded its hygienic conditions were adequate, stating: “it is swept and no waste has been found.”

Soon, the assemblies became redoubts for inclusion. If someone stated that bankers behave like “hijos de puta,” many of the participants would silently cross their arms, reproving the exclusion operated by means of language on a sex workers’ offspring. First day jeers to the banner “THE REVOLUTION WILL BE FEMINIST OR IT WON’T BE,” were responded with the programming of seminars on feminism, detailing the discussion on gender equity at the camp. Sol has not been an action, but more like a re-institutional process of daily life. A collective effort to bring ordinary urban life into politics; in which social capitals, associations, and good manners have extensively benefited from a precedent corpus of experiences and social constructions vital to make the movement possible, and that needs to be taken into account....

The Popular March to Brussels that left the Puerta de Sol of Madrid on July 26th, is now at the Pyrenees. Until today, over one hundred people have decided to go to Brussels. The Marchers are, among other places, from Italy, Greece, Germany, France, Russia, USA, Cuba, Colombia, Mexico, Tunisia, Poland and England. Women and men of all ages are sharing this experience.

After twenty-three days on tour along towns and cities in Northern Spain, on Wednesday August 17th, early in the morning and from the city of Irun, the March will cross the border. Then, they will meet their counterparts in France at Baiona, where a warm welcome is prepared.

On Monday, August 8th, also the Mediterranean March to Brussels left the city of Barcelona in their journey to the Belgium capital. The Marchers are currently 21 and tomorrow it’s expected that several people will join up them. Besides, 12 participants have already confirmed their presence in the neighbour country, who will join up the March to accompany them to cross the border....

epaulo13: thanks for the thread. I was watching a video about the anti-papal protests over on Joe.My.God yesterday, and now, having read this thread, the slogan that kept be chanted during the video "nobody represents us" makes a great deal more sense.

There are a number of things I liked about the video, not least of which was the prominent display of the flag of the second republic. I think it helps place the letter reproduced in post #39 in place -- and why I would consider the letter to be exhorting, not hectoring.

Three months of struggle: an overview of the #15m movement and the #spanishrevolution

For the last three months Spain has been rocked by a wave of protests, occupations and direct actions carried out by a new grassroots political movement that is demanding a more participatory democracy and an end to harsh austerity measures. It is referred to as the M-15 movement, as it began on the 15th of May when tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets all over Spain. The demonstration was organised by an internet group called ‘Real Democracy Now’, who published a manifesto calling for an “ethic revolution” and critiquing neo-liberalism. The manifesto is short text that provides the ideological basis for the movement. The opening paragraph reads

We are ordinary people. We are like you: people, who get up every morning to study, work or find a job. People, who work hard every day to provide a better future for those around us.We are all concerned and angry about the political, economic, and social outlook which we see around us: corruption among politicians, businessmen, bankers, leaving us helpless, without a voice. This situation has become normal, a daily suffering, without hope. But if we join forces, we can change it. It’s time to change things, time to build a better society together. Therefore, we strongly argue that: The priorities of any advanced society must be equality, progress, solidarity, freedom of culture, sustainability and development, welfare and people’s happiness. (for full manifesto in English see http://european-citizens-network.eu/civil-en/spip.php?article42)....

epaulo13: thanks for the thread. I was watching a video about the anti-papal protests over on Joe.My.God yesterday, and now, having read this thread, the slogan that kept be chanted during the video "nobody represents us" makes a great deal more sense.

There are a number of things I liked about the video, not least of which was the prominent display of the flag of the second republic. I think it helps place the letter reproduced in post #39 in place -- and why I would consider the letter to be exhorting, not hectoring.

..my pleasure bagkitty. and txs for the video link. exhilarating! i'm happy to say that i saw anger but i don't remember seeing hate.

..my pleasure bagkitty. and txs for the video link. exhilarating! i'm happy to say that i saw anger but i don't remember seeing hate.

I had exactly the same impression... this was something that struck me too. People were being extremely loud and direct (not to mention witty) in expressing themselves, but I could detect no threat of violence apart from the regular police bullying tactics. Somehow I suspect that this is what democracy really looks like when large numbers of people are actively engaged.

I had exactly the same impression... this was something that struck me too. People were being extremely loud and direct (not to mention witty) in expressing themselves, but I could detect no threat of violence apart from the regular police bullying tactics. Somehow I suspect that this is what democracy really looks like when large numbers of people are actively engaged.

real democracy..yes, very animated and energized yet so much more. non violence is at the heart of the 15m movement. i thought the pope issue was a great issue that needed to come forward. and then to debate it under the open sky was brilliant. in the sense that it's very much inclusive and empowering. i can see ordinary conservative types in time grow to respect the call for openness and democracy then eventually see their interests change. which brings us back to ﻿"nobody represents us".

This document presents the proposals and lines of action that, to date (15 June 2011) have been discussed and agreed by the Sol Camp Economics Working Group.

From the start, this working group has been divided into six subgroups with specific areas of work:

Employment

Companies

Housing

Economic Policy

Financial Systems

Global Economic Relations

Both the subgroups and the Economics group have operated via assemblies held in the street (in the Plaza del Carmen) with the participation of anyone who has wanted to take part. These assemblies have been announced in the zones earmarked for this purpose at the Sol Camp, as well as on the movement’s internet platforms, to ensure as many people as possible are aware of them and can get involved....

I had exactly the same impression... this was something that struck me too. People were being extremely loud and direct (not to mention witty) in expressing themselves, but I could detect no threat of violence apart from the regular police bullying tactics. Somehow I suspect that this is what democracy really looks like when large numbers of people are actively engaged.

real democracy..yes, very animated and energized yet so much more. non violence is at the heart of the 15m movement. i thought the pope issue was a great issue that needed to come forward. and then to debate it under the open sky was brilliant. in the sense that it's very much inclusive and empowering. ordinary conservative types could in time grow to respect the call for openness and democracy then eventually see their interests change. which brings us back to ﻿"nobody represents us".

eta:this post went weird on me. tried to fix it but don't know how.

epaulo, all I did was remove the extra closing /quote tag located immediately after your opening quote=epaulo tag. I removed a second one after the word engaged between paragraphs and inserted a closing quote tag after your very last word in the post. Just remember that all HTML and UBB tags in general must be balanced. Or in other words, for every opening tag on the left there must be a closing one on the right. You can nest tags within tags, but they can never be cross nested. For example, this won't work and not just because I inserted spaces for display purposes:

[ quote=epaulo ][b ] Some text[ /quote][ /b]

Note that besides there being spaces in the tags above which also causes them to fail, the above quote tags are at least balanced. For both opening quote and bolding tags there are corresponding close out tags of the same type somewhere following to the right. But the above tags are not used in proper order, however, and "Some text" should have been bolded but is not. The order of the ending close out tags for /quote and /b needs to be switched. Even if I removed the spaces, they should not work. I suspect the interpreter might try to make it work though or attempt to fix my bad tags with or without success.

So tags must always be balanced as well as closed out in order of use. When the UBB or HTML interpreter sees a bold tag, for instance, the very next tag it encounters must be a corresponding close out tag: [/b] or the tag will fail or cause something unpredictable to happen to your post. You had an opening quote tag and two close-out tags. And that sometimes causes strange things to happen to your post.

With over a million people taking to the streets and squares of more than 50 cities, a powerful message was sent out to the newly-installed government of Mariano Rajoy: your honeymoon is over! As the Conservatives prepare to unleash their neoliberal fury over the crisis-ridden country, pushing for radical labor market reforms and drastic austerity measures, the Spanish once again find themselves at the barricades, gearing up for another spring of discontent.

In many ways, the mass rallies — with over half a million converging in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol and another 450.000 in Barcelona’s Plaza de Catalunya alone – were only just the beginning. While this weekend’s protests largely consisted of organized labor unions, the decentralized 15-M movement has called for another wave of actions in the spring — including a global day of action, a pan-European strike, and the re-occupation of Puerta del Sol on May 12....

Police charges against teenager students in Valencia (Spain) #primaveravalenciana

video

Demostration started at High School Lluis Vives, students protests by funding cuts in education and last week’s police repression with a result of 17 students under arrest and some injureds, some of them seriously injured. Today 14 students were arrested, four of them underaged, and 4 students injured. Police, using up to 25 police vans, dispersed the pacific demostration with brutality. For some hours Valencia downtown was taken by anti-riots police forces, dispersing students indiscriminately while they runs trying to avoid be beated by police clubs. Students cutted some streets while they scream “thefhs to jail and money for education”, neighbours suports students and criticized police actions againts this childs. Marga Sanz, spokeswoman from EU at Valencia’s Parlament, said “we’re in a city taken by police, seeing images of brutal police agressions to childs, journalists and any walking people they found”. Two of the students arrested last week were released with charges, 8 were brought to justice.

[Update] Hundreds of people assembled in the University to think about the next steps against the police brutality and educational cuts.

A day before the government is set to vote on Europe’s most dramatic austerity budget, millions walk off their jobs in the first general strike since 2010.

Millions of Spaniards are walking off their jobs today in a massive general strike and a series of protest marches against the proposed austerity budget and labor reforms of Prime Minister Rajoy’s 4-month old conservative government. As the Spanish debt crisis deepens — at 23 percent, unemployment is the highest in the Western world — financial markets and EU leaders are demanding even more far-reaching reforms and austerity measures than in Greece.

As a result, the Spanish government is set to vote tomorrow on Europe’s most dramatic austerity budget, with another 40 billion euros expected to be cut on top of 15 billion in cuts already announced three months ago. The austerity measures come after a series of radical labor reforms enacted last month that make it much easier for employers to lay off workers, cut wages and modify pre-existing labor agreements.....

Solidarity With Today's General Strike in Spain
Across Spain today, the 99% are rising together in a national General Strike in opposition to the government's pro-business labor reforms and funding cuts to education and other services. In a country where over half of young people are already unemployed, these austerity measures - created solely to appease un-elected European Union bureaucracies and used to protect the interests of powerful international banks and wealthy investors - would demolish decades of hard-won labor rights by making it easier for companies to lay off employees and unilaterally cut wages.....

Though the strike was on March 29th, the student strike had already started on the 28th, in the afternoon there were concentrations in several parts of Barcelona, and in the evening there was an artistic call to the strike with images projected on the wall of the most (in)famous shopping center: http://lasumablog.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/vaga.jpg

At 00:00 the first picket blockings started. By 3:00 am Barcelona and other cities were already showing signs of the strike: Many factories parallized, highways blocked with barricades, most of the main wholesale markets were closed and blocked, and the first detentions of picket groups started....

2 TWO CORRUPT POLITICIANS CONVICTED

Josep Maria Matas former president of the Balearic Islands and minister of the PP (Popular Party, the right wing party that won the latest elections) has been convicted for using illegaly public funds, disqualified from holding public office and fined for 11.625 €. Despite being sentenced to 6 years of jail, Josep Maria Matas is not in prison.

As in a bad movie, Josep Tous was arresteded just a few hours before being nominated general coordinator of Barcelona’s Council. The accusation is of being involved in a plot of irregular ITV (Technical Inspeccion of Vehicles)concessions. More politicians and businessmen have been investigated and arrested in this same plot. The three main political parties in opposition are demanding his cessation or dismissal as the second strongest man in Barcelona’s Council....

3 SELF-MANAGEMENT AND EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES IN THE OCCUPIED UNIVERSITY

On Monday 26th March an occupation started in the Faculty of Communication, in UAB (Autonomical University of Barcelona). This occupation was called by the students’ assembly, who organized two days of peaceful and informative demonstrations , which stopped normal teaching. In replacement of the syllabus, students had different kinds of alternative speeches and workshops that tried to promote the ability for critical reflection, in contrast with overcrowed teaching plans focused on a technical learning....

4. TERRASSA RESPON: A CITIZEN COLLECTIVE THAT SPREAD OUT ACTIONS AND INFORMATION FROM THE LOCAL TO THE WORLDWIDE.

The great alternative tradition of Terrassa is reflected in this group that brings together people from different regions of the world, built through a communication line an international diffusion.

The collective lives together in a common space where they develop their tasks, from the essential to the most innovative ones.

They have blogs where they spread the 20feb moroccan activity, another blog to publish local info, a livestream channel, and a team of writers and streamers....

All The Pain in Spain, by Pepe Escobar
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/04/20124712153186201.html
"So the concept of 'democracy' in Europe is now a travesty; what matters is to install bankers as heads of state - as in Rome or Athens; impose a reactionary social and labour counter-revolution; and intervene at will to service the economy.
The destruction of Greece may eventually be seen as Aristophanes comedy compared to Sophocles tragedy in store for Spain. Spain is the fourth largest economy in the eurozone. If it goes down the EU goes down.
Millions refuse to lie down and see their lives smashed for the benefit of a few bankers..."